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Radio Waves: Stephen Armstrong: The grin reality

Comedy has always had a hard kernel of pure pain at its heart. For all the talk of the dark comedy that flourished after The Office, Phoenix Nights and Marion and Geoff, it’s always been true that if there is no jeopardy, there is rarely laughter. What has changed recently is that certain com- edians have taken their personal suffering and transformed it into powerful pieces of stand-up. Arthur Smith built a show around his necrotic pancreatitis; Andre Vincent discussed his cancer; Addy van der Borgh and Phil Nichol have built shows around their alcoholism; and Russell Brand aired his battle with heroin addiction.

Fortunately for the jovial day-trippers in the audience, these shows ended happily ever after.

Everyone got better. Everyone is still here. For Radio 4’s My MS and Me, on April 22, the parameters are different. Jim Sweeney, the writer and performer, has multiple sclerosis, and he